Alumnus envisions an open Asian economy
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

Korean economist, professor and businessman Yang-Taek Lim is a pragmatist and a poet. Well-studied on the barriers that prevent companies in many Asian countries from conducting business across borders, Lim has spent a good part of his career laboring on a vision that is ultimately poetic. Line by line, verse by verse, Lim has built a distinguished body of research encouraging the formation of economic relationships among countries in the region, most recently among China, Korea and Japan.

Lim is a professor of economics at Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea, where he has taught since 1979 and was dean of the College of Economics and Finance. Lim graduated from Georgia State University in 1978 with a Ph.D. in Economics after earning his bachelor’s degree in political science at Korea University in Seoul. Professor Emeritus John J. Klein was his faculty advisor at Georgia State University. “I knew where Lim wanted to go very early,” says Klein. “He has always been very ambitious in wanting to make a difference in his country.” They have maintained their friendship, sharing news and visits, since the late 1970s.

A prolific researcher and author, Lim has produced 35 books and nearly 100 articles. His latest published articles focus on the economic relationship of China-Korea-Japan and their technological cooperation. He says his speech, “Korea’s Reunification and Peace Settlement in Northeast Asia,” presented at the Korean Congressmen Seminar in North Korea in November was his most memorable activity in 2004.

Lim admits that his study of economics at Georgia State University was related to his plan to become a good statesman. “Political science and economics are mutually correlated, just like two faces of a coin,” he says. “A political scientist knows what kind of policy is needed, but he or she may not know how to analyze rigorously the potential effects of a hypothetically chosen policy. On the other hand, it is more difficult for an economist to become a good politician, because he or she may not know how to lead people.”

Since 1994 Lim has operated a family business, I-HIT (International High Industrial Technology, Inc.), and the I-HIT research institute at Hanyang University, which develop and sell energy-saving technological products. His company in 2004 received a grant of one billion Korean wons (nearly US $1 million) for a cooperative research project that, if successful, will be commercialized with additional government support. I-HIT is successfully marketing and distributing other breakthrough products as well.

Many prestigious awards, honors and appointments have been bestowed upon Lim in recognition of his outstanding career. He received the BWW Society (Bibliotheque World Wide) Global Solutions Award (2002), was named an outstanding research professor and was appointed an Honorary Lieutenant Governor by the State of Oklahoma. Yet Lim remains humble about his accomplishments. “I would like to say that I am not a successful man, but yet a working-hard-person for my dream.”

Lim, who is also a published poet, offers AYSPS students the secret of his success: “Be confident about yourself all the time. Try to foresee what will challenge you. The person who is simply working hard with no farsightedness looks like a squirrel going round and round and will never become a leader.”